Economics of foodgrain Crops in Himachal Pradesh: A Study of Solan District

Abstract

Main purpose of the study is to determine the cost structure, profit margin and returns to scale of foodgrain crops. Foodgrain crops selected for investigation are wheat, maize and paddy. Solan district was selected purposively. Data have been collected by personal interviews. Per hectare cost of cultivation of wheat, maize and paddy worked out as size-wise of holding and compared the cost of these crops and found that medium farms had maximum cultivation cost because their farm size were large, gross returns and net returns also worked out. Further Cobb- Douglous production function has been to get the estimates of elasticities of the inputs land, human labour, bullock labour, manure& fertilizers, seeds and capital. Results show that inputs have significant impact on the production of foodgrain crops and also show constant, increasing and decreasing returns to scale.